A recently released study by Prophet, a strategic brand and marketing consultancy, exposes how apprehensive senior marketers are about their ability to build brand in the “complex new ecosystem of influence.”

The survey of more than 150 executives, half in marketing and the remainder in non-marketing roles, revealed that the C-Suite believes "their organizations are not well-equipped with the skills that are needed to build brands in the near future."

Their primary concern (55% of all respondents) was the ability to establish a differentiated brand position.

Other primary areas of concern were: “Growing awareness with new customers (40%)” and “identifying new paths to growth (41%).”

A key question was “Who owns your brand?” The majority of executives believe that the company (not the customers) still owns the brand, but they realize that an increase in the number of brand influencers, like word-of-mouth, are causing corporate control to erode, and the ability to stand out is increasingly difficult in a multichannel, multi-segmented, long-tail environment.

So, what were the skills they identified as necessary to meet these new marketing challenges?

84% of the group felt the need for more innovative approaches to targeting and marketing.

68% cited capabilities in digital media strategies.

57% said marketing must be approached from a P&L mindset.

This reminds me of one of my first blog posts that shared a wonderful video illustrating “The New Marketing Reality.” It humorously shows how, in a multi-brand, multichannel world, the consumer has control.

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SIGMA Marketing Insights is a boutique marketing services firm obsessed with the customer experience, and driven to turn data into a powerful tool that will deliver more relevant, personalized interaction and engagement across all channels.